On the existence of root-initial-accenting suffixes: An elicitation study of Japanese -zu

Shigeto Kawahara, Matthew Wolf

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Most known cases of affix controlled accentuation patterns involve local accent assignment: prefixes assign root-initial accents whereas suffixes assign root-final accents. In this article we document the nonlocal accentuation behavior of -zu, a recently emerged suffix in Japanese which an elicitation study reveals to be productively root-initial-accenting. We present a phonological analysis of the -zu data, showing that standard theories of morpheme realization predict the existence of such a suffix. The existence of -zu therefore fills what would otherwise be an undesirable typological gap.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)837-864
Number of pages28
JournalLinguistics
Volume48
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010 Jul
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

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